Fanny Price vs. Jane Eyre - A comparison of the two heroines and their respective popularity

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2012 im Fachbereich Didaktik - Englisch - Literaturgeschichte, Epochen, Note: 1,3, Universität Duisburg-Essen (Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät), Veranstaltung: The Country House Novel, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: At first glance it seems odd to compare Fanny Price and Jane Eyre with each other. Albeit both published in the 19th century, the two novels were written in different historical time periods. Whilst Mansfield Park was written in the Regency era, Jane Eyre originates in the Victorian age (cf. Nünning 2004: 11). Furthermore, the genres of the two books differ, as Mansfield Park belongs to the genre of Social Comedy whilst Jane Eyre is classified as Bildungsroman. Nonetheless, the two heroines show more parallels than might occur immediately. Fanny Price and Jane Eyre are both at least partly brought up by their wealthy aunts, where the two of them are struggling as there are not experiencing an equal treatment to their cousins. The heroines react quite differently to this circumstance but both develop a strong personality throughout the novel and stand out through their moral strength and character. The two are being confronted with many challenges but ultimately both succeed in marrying the love of their lives. However, Fanny and Jane are two very different young ladies and so is the development of their story. The aim of this paper is to compare the two heroines, to explore the very different ways in which they reach their goals and to find out why the two differ so much in their popularity and whether this is justified. In order to put the behaviour of the two ladies into perspective, a brief historical background is given before concluding.